3/4th August... a non descript weekend!

Only a brief blog because I still have lots to catch up on. Non descript are the only two words I can find for these two matches.
On Saturday 3^rd I fished the Lindholme open which was scheduled to be on Oasis. There was about 28 anglers on which is perfect for Oasis really but there was also half of Laurels free too. Owner Neil held a pre match vote as to whether anglers wanted just the one lake or Laurels included too, which would mean more space for those on Oasis with those drawing Laurels sharing the lake with the club match. I’m all for a fair match so I voted just Oasis, but unfortunately I was outvoted. As a result I just knew Oasis would win and sods law dictated that I drew Laurels 25. A point peg but when I arrived there I found I was sharing what isn’t a very large bay with five club anglers. Game over.

 

 

Peg 25 Laurels

I had a good laugh with the anglers on the other match, at one point a grass snake swam from across the lake to one of them. I shouted over so he didn’t miss it, just as it went under his keepnets and under his platform. I’ve never seen a grown man move so fast and jump off his box! Fishing wise I struggled early doors but caught well shallow later on when the cross wind turned to blow off my back. I ended up with 101lb which I knew would not be enough. Sean Cameron was behind me on 23 and only had two other anglers in his bay, he won our lake with a cracking effort of 141lb. Unfortunately he just missed out on framing, if he had I would have got a default section win.

Match Result
1. J Allerton 157lb Oasis 56
2. A Macloud 153lb Oasis 22ish
3. S Barraclough 142lb Oasis 2
4. S Cameron 141lb Laurels 23

The Oaks, Sunday 4th August

                                 Beech 8


The day after I ventured to the Oaks at Sessay on the three New Lakes. These are like swimming pools with between 22 and 30 pegs and they all feature the deepest part of the peg at 6m, before it slopes up to a shallow bar at 13m of about 2.5ft which carries on right across to the other side. They are very fair lakes but for some reason the biggest one, Sycamore, has been by far the best one to draw this year. A few matches ago I managed to get on Sycamore and had 138lb for second, but the weights have been much higher, with 180s and 190s recorded even at weekends.

I wasn’t impressed to draw Beech 8. This was a great area last year but not in 2013 and my match never got going, with the wind off my back I hoped to catch shallow but it had been windy and rainy recently and I never got a fish this way. I couldn’t catch on a Method feeder and had to stick it out down the edge for odd runs of fish. It was the same for everyone on our bank but on the opposite side in the wind they were catching well tight in the edge in 10-12ins of water. I had a miserable 73lb which wasn’t the worst on our bank. Ian Bowman is an oaks regular and Barnsley Black and tipped back 50 – 60lb to my right, and Mark Calvert, another good local, had 87lb on Beech 2 which has been the best peg on Beech this year. I could have done significantly better had I got the edge right and had a bit more experience with paste, but I'm not sure I could have troubled the frame or section default.

Match Result
1. A Hampson 128lb B18
2. I Bailey 123lb A3
3. C Kendall and C Hall 122lb, Sycamore 12 and 2
4. L Hawksworth 121lb S25

Maver Match This Qualifier

After the success of the festival I went into the subsequent Maver Match This qualifier at Lindholme full of confidence, having been second and third in the past two Maver qualifiers here. I really fancied Willows to produce the goods, I didn’t want Oasis and I wasn’t sure about Laurels.

I drew Laurels 33, the third point up on the right and a flier usually. Lee Kerry had caught 173lb off it on the Wednesday but there were only two anglers in this bay, today there was double that. He caught both shallow and then a lot of barbel and f1s down the edge on a top kit to his right using maggots. To cut a long story short I fed most of my remaining casters from the festival (plus a bit of meat) down the edge here and for three hours it produced the grand total of two micro perch! What a difference three days makes!

The shallow line was good early but died off completely and there was nothing to be caught at 5m. I sat it out down the edge over groundbait for the last few hours and had two bites, the first was 10lb and the second 12lb! A disappointing 72lb actually wasn’t terrible on the day, there were two 90lb weights on laurels, both pegged in corners and fishing along the bank. Willows produced a few 90 – 110lb weights but it was Mr Bennett who stole the show again on Oasis 26 with 138lb.

Result
1. A Bennett (Daiwa Guru Bait Tech) 138lb Oasis 26
2. C Goldstraw (Maver Midlands) 109lb Willows 2
3. L Thornton (Middy Bag Em) 101lb Willows 6

Lindholme Festival Final Day

 

The final day of the festival and it was crunch time. At this point I should perhaps stress that if this is the first blog of the festival you are reading, it would be better to navigate to the first day via the archive on the right, to follow it from the beginning ;)

We were finishing as we had started the week, on the Bonsai Lake and today I had brought my Grandad with me for the day out. He’s 91 and it’s been ages since he’s watched me fish, I was hoping he would bring me a bit of luck. An equal or better score than Craig Elkin would guarantee me second, and I could even win it depending how Andy Bennett did. I could not see Andy slipping up on this lake today though and he was out for revenge after yesterday.

Out came peg 81, which as the festival pegging went, was the next one along to 78 which I had on Monday. I was initially happy, until I realised the wind direction and the people in my section.  81 is towards the car park end of the lake and the wind was blowing to my left down the lake into the 70s. I feared it may have pushed a lot of fish down there. On 78 was John Allerton, on 74 was Paul Wright and on 72 was Nick Speed, all these anglers had won at least two sections and framed during the week so far. First job was to set my Grandad up at the side of me, with a great big carp chair and a brolly to keep him in the shade!

 

Well spotted! Once again no pic, this is peg 78 from Monday but it is very similar to 81

My mind was made up on fishing the same match as Monday as peg 81 is almost identical, although the peg is wider and requires the absolute full 16m to touch the far side reeds, where there was one gap. It’s also deeper than 78 and is a very good winter draw. Weirdly my match started identically to Monday, although I had discounted worms and went straight across to the island with meat. This produced two small carp in as many puts but in 2.5ft of water, the shallowest I could get, the liners started. I picked up the catty and caught an odd fish shallow, but it seemed very steady fishing for everyone. Going into the second hour sport picked up a bit and then after another half hour I was catching very regularly. Although I was getting an odd 2lb common or mirror, I was getting a lot of smaller F1s which live in the 80s but going with the mentality I had kept all week, I just ploughed on and kept putting something in the sprout sack!

My Grandad wasn’t too enthralled by the amount of fish coming out as at one point he fell asleep in his chair! My only concern was my mate Speedy as Grandad kept telling me that he was catching well too. With an hour to go I decided to feed my edge line to the platform of peg 80. I had nothing to lose by doing this but I had seen the big fish which came in on this line on Monday. I was just about to ship out my shallow rig again when out of the corner of my eye I saw a swirl over the groundbait. Ever the opportunist, a quick change of rigs and a cube of meat was lowered into the edge, after 30 seconds it went and I was soon netting an 8lb mirror.

After catching that fish so quickly I was thinking ‘can this match go any better’. But at that point things started to go horribly wrong. With even more enthusiasm I went back down the edge, with dreams of catching 50lb of lumps in the last hour. Every time I fed there were swirls but I didn’t have it quite right and I think the lack of cover and sun was not making the fish very confident and over the next half hour I put just a few barbel and tench in the net. I had kept the shallow line fed and when I went on it again I caught two fish straight away, then I noticed more tail patterns in the edge. I got caught in the edge trap once again and before I knew it there was only five minutes of the match left. Another 8lber right on time was a little consolation but I was very annoyed with myself. In fact I wish I’d never caught that first 8lber as it threw me completely. I should have stopped on the shallow line. The big question now was would it cost me?

Nick Speed was admitting to 130lb and although I knew I had 100lb-plus, I wasn’t sure how much over that I was, owing to the different sizes of fish I had caught. News soon came through that Andy Bennett had paralysed his section with 195lb from peg 21. A super weight from a peg which is either devoid or solid with fish. I now realised I couldn’t win the festival but hoped to hang on to second. Nick Speed weighed 133lb from peg 72, but when I had to have him help me lift my first net out, overloaded with about 90lb, I knew I was going to overcome that. A total of 159lb 1oz and another third in the match. Lee Kerry completed the top three with 173lb from peg 65.

As it stood I had tied on Andy Bennett with a perfect four point score, but when the dropped result came into play as I knew it would, his second compared to my third was enough for him to take the title. He fished inexplicably well all week and deserved the win and £1000 first prize, well done mate! I was more than happy with my week’s work and went home more than a few quid up with an overall second, four section prizes plus a second and two third in matches. Now I can’t wait for next year and think I might do both the spring and summer events.

Festival Result
1. A Bennett (Daiwa Guru Bait-Tech) 4pts (dropping 2)
2. B Fisk (Middy) 4pts (3)
3. C Elkin (Matrix) 6pts (3)
4. J Corless (Bolton) 6pts (4)
5. R Lidgard (Brigg AC) 7pts

 

Lindholme Festival Day Four

Thursday 30th July

Day Four. A section win today would guarantee me a place in the overall frame but a section win for Andy Bennett would almost certainly guarantee him the 2013 title. The lakes at the back, Loco, Beeches and Strip were in use and having not fished Loco for a few years I was hoping to avoid it. Loco can also be unpredictable due to the big fish it contains, a few of those can change the result in minutes. The other problem is that Loco has a central island fishable from only the two pegs 17 and 42 either side of it, which cast the Method feeder 70 yards and usually catch 100lb-plus of proper carp. I drew peg 39 Loco… doh!

The wind was blowing down the lake from right to left (I was two thirds of the way up the lake) and my peg was also cut back in a tiny bay, meaning my long pole line would be closer in than my neighbours. To add extra spice to the day Andy Bennett had drawn the peg to my right 36 and on 42 island chuck was venue regular Steve Dyson. I knew I had my work cut out today.

Loco is a deep lake of around 10-12ft and I just could not see the fish being on the bottom at this time of year. I decided to fish very positively (as usual!)  so I set up to fish the waggler, the long pole shallow and the edge to my right next to the vacant platform. I also prepared a Method feeder because the wind was getting stronger and it was looking doubtful of catching on a waggler.

I set up three different shallow rigs to cover different depths, with slightly heavier bristled floats than usual because of the wind and tow. I actually started on the pole, to give the fish room to back off onto the waggler line if needs be. After five minutes I’d missed a few bites fishing 3ft deep so I picked up a shallower version and immediately connected with something which turned out to be an F1 pushing 4lb. No more bites so I went down to the 3ft rig and suddenly found myself attached to something more substantial on the drop. My tackle just about held and I netted a 5lb common carp. I think that’s what they call a reasonable start!

Bites then stopped and I was forced out onto the waggler, where I soon had a bite and hooked another proper carp. It was about 6lb and somehow inexplicably came off at the net. I thought it could be a difficult day so I was not best pleased. I caught an F1 then no more bites so I came in on the pole line. This time there were a few fish there. Throughout the day I caught odd little flurries of fish, mainly on the pole but when that died I went out on the waggler and picked up an odd F1 there too. The problem was that Andy Bennett had been catching well on his pole line and I was conscious that he was probably forging ahead of me. I also managed another carp on the pole, a 5lb ghostie, plus around five big skimmers of 2.5-3lb which were very welcome.

Struggling in the last hour, both Andy and I filled in our margin line in pursuit of a proper carp but neither of us could find one (they run to over 20lb in Loco and there are loads of doubles). With 15 minutes to go the reeds near the platform I had fed began to knock and I knew there was a fish or two there. I had a couple of goes without a bite, refeeding in the process. Andy was catching shallow again and I was sure he was well ahead of me, so with nothing to lose I stayed down the edge. Another pot of groundbait and I sat there. Time was virtually up when my float vanished, the elastic eased out into the middle of the lake just as they shouted time and I was able to shout fish on. I played a 7lb mirror very carefully before gratefully netting it.

Andy told me he had 60 F1s at 1lb 8oz each for at least 80lb-plus. I knew I didn’t have anywhere near 60 fish, so thinking I had 60lb, I told him I had about 50lb to be on the safe side. He weighed first and recorded 105lb, enough for his fourth win surely? I couldn’t believe it when my first net went 44lb something, and my second was considerably heavier. A total of 109lb 15oz and my third section win. Understandably Andy was not best pleased,  and barely spoke to me again that day! I can only put my bad ‘guestimating’ down to concentrating so hard on my fishing I sometimes forget what I’m putting in my net, though my fish were definitely of a bigger stamp than his, plus I had four proper carp. Either way it doesn’t matter what you admit to, you’ve got what you’ve got when you pull your keepnets out five minutes later to weigh in!

I was chuffed to win the section from that draw and that lump at the very end was the difference between one point and two. Had I caught another F1 or two out long I probably wouldn't have won it. Decisions like going down the edge win or lose matches and festivals!

The other section on Loco was won with 111lb, and in that one Paul Christie had a 19lb 8oz beast, enough to scoop the £250 biggest fish of the week. Beeches provided the match winner with 180lb for Alex Mcleoud, with Paul Wright second with 173lb off Strip.
Having taken a point off Andy (somehow, I’ll never know how), it all rests on tomorrow!  

Lindholme Festival Day Three

Wednesday 29th July

Day three and we were heading to Willows and Laurels Lakes, two open water lakes with a series of spits running out into the lakes, creating different bays. The good news for me was that these lakes are dominated by shallow fishing in summer and I was hoping to draw Willows as I believe it to be slightly fairer than Laurels. Despite the owner Neil (who was holding the bag) telling me not to draw my peg yet in the middle of the queue and to wait a bit longer for a good peg, I ignored him and pulled out peg 51 on Willows.

 My initial thought was one of disappointment because peg 52 was in too and I knew I was in a corner. But when I got to the peg I realised it was still some distance to the corner itself and there was a long edge up to peg 52, which was occupied by Paul Christie (yesterday’s left hand neighbour too). However there were four people in our bay with peg 2 and peg 7 in (end peg 53 and peg 1 are next to each other), whereas every other bay had just two anglers in. I was gutted to see my mate Nick Speed rock up on peg 43 behind me, he had just one other angler in his bay too. Nick is very good on Willows and has a 5m meat line sorted down to a tee on this lake, which has seen some big weights for him in the past. I could only hope that the wind had been blowing down into the bottom bay I was in recently.

On Willows I often spend an entire match fishing pellet shallow, a lot of anglers come here and fish chopped worm and caster slop shallow but I find this too slow (and expensive!). Today I also plumbed up a 5m line for meat and an edge rig to my right where I found a perfect 15ins of water. I actually started the match shallow, something I rarely do anywhere, but it can work immediately on Willows. Unfortunately it didn’t and I soon had to beat a hasty retreat to the 5m line, where I had an odd fish but I was quickly falling behind Nick and the other anglers in the section, who were all catching on this line. I kept the shallow line well fed, it was my only chance, and after about 30 minutes I gave it another go. I started catching an odd fish but I was waiting for bites, but at least I was catching at a similar rate to Nick, who I could see behind my rollers every time I shipped the pole back. Unfortunately a family of grebes had a nest in the reeds to my left and were fishing themselves in the bay. The five of them kept going through my pole line wiping it out, even though they were catching small roach they were disrupting the F1s and resulted in several quiet spells. I could feel the section and the festival slipping away from me…

After an hour what I had been hoping for happened. The grebes moved off to pester another bay and my shallow line really started to kick in. Bites were coming soon after slapping the pellet in and for the remaining 4 hours and 45 minutes I just got my head down to try and catch Nick up. Unfortunately for him his bites slowed down and after a few hours I was sure I had overtaken him. I just kept ploughing on and like Monday, I could even afford the luxury of feeding my margin with 20 minutes remaining. With 10 minutes to go it was heaving and a big mirror and a ghostie even poked their heads out and had a look at me. But I was getting a fish a chuck shallow still and I resisted the temptation to come off it.

On Laurels Lee Kerry won the second section with a terrific 173lb from peg 33, but this was bettered in the overall stakes by Andy Bennett who amassed 193lb on peg 56. A brilliant performance, he made it pay shallow on a good peg with space. When Nick Speed weighed 99lb and Dave Shires 138lb in my section, I knew it was mine and my total was 175lb 9oz, my third biggest weight ever. This was enough for second overall on the day.

The individual festival positions were starting to take place. Andy Bennett was looking seemingly unstoppable with three straight section wins and 100lb-plus hauls, but he was in exactly this position last year so it can still change. Craig Elkin was sitting second and my five points was third. Tomorrow we are bound for Loco, Beeches and Strip, much peggier lakes where anything can happen!

Lindholme Festival Day Two

Tuesday 28th July

First of all apologies for the lack of a peg picture, when I get used to this regular blogging lark I will remember to engage brain and get my phone out before setting or packing up!

Today we were scheduled for Oasis Lake but with relentless hot weather of 24-26⁰c and low pressure recently, the lake’s oxygen levels were painfully low.
The aerators were kept on throughout the match on this 64 peg snake lake, which has a far bank to fish to at 14-16m throughout. It’s a brilliant lake with lots of methods working, but I feared we might be in for a tough day. And so it proved.

I won’t delve too much into this match because there is little to write home about. I drew peg 24, the narrowest, shallowest area of the lake. I wasn’t impressed although occasionally there can be a lot of proper mirror and common carp in this section, but there is always a distinct lack of F1s. I fished a positive match, too positive for the day infact, and I was left scratching my head after an hour. Apart from very early on, there were hardly any fish across in the shallow water. I had one fish at 5m all day and nothing down the edge, in fact the only way I could get an odd bite was by fishing pellet shallow to my right. This produced 19 F1s and a carp across for a dismal 30lb 11oz. Incredibly this was actually third in the section, the anglers either side of me fared even worse. On 22 former Fish O’ Mania finalist Paul Christie had, wait for it, 9lb and White Acres regular Mal Proctor mustered 17lb on bend peg 27. On peg 20 was my good friend Lee Kerry, again like my peg it can be solid or devoid in summer. He weighed in 38lb so I think it’s fair to say there wasn’t much feeding in our part of the lake!

The section was won by Andy Middleton on 28, where he took 62lb under the cover of the bushes on the far side. Andy Bennett took the match apart with 125lb from peg 34, a noted big fish area, in fact he only had 33 carp. In the 50s and 60s there was another 100lb and several 80s and 90s. I couldn’t afford another result like this or my chances of winning the festival again would be over.